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Vegetables are defined as the fresh parts of plants that provide suitable nutrition for humans, raw, cooked, canned, or processed in some other way. Brinjal is a commonly grown economically valuable crop, is an important solanaceous crop in India is a high genotypic diversity. In this study of variability and correlation of nutrient, biochemical parameters, and yield traits of diverse brinjal genotypes. Brinjal is a Wide variability was present among all the nutrients under study suggesting ample scope of selection. Genotypic coefficient of variation (GCV) and phenotypic coefficient of variation (PCV) was high in most of the characters except moisture content, radical scavenging activity, and yield/plant. High heritability was observed for iron (99.70 %), copper (99.01 %), total anthocyanin (99.12 %), total phenol (98.59 %), total chlorophyll content (92.61 %), average fruit weight (98.82 %), number of fruits/plant (97.86), suggesting that selection for these traits would be effective for the selection. Correlation study shows that Moisture, P, Ca, TSS, total chlorophyll, fruit length, fruit girth, and a number of fruits per plant showed high significant positive correlation and Fe and Zn significant negative correlation with yield per plant at the genotypic level. This study shows that sufficient variability exists in all the cultivars for nutrients, biochemical parameters, and yield traits.

The present study was undertaken to develop a simple, robust, and reliable polymerase chain reaction-based molecular marker that can identify a critical nonsense mutation in a receptor like protein...

Lectin proteins play an important role in biotic and abiotic stress responses in plants. Although the rice lectin protein Osr40c1 has been reported to be regulated by drought stress, the mechanism of its drought tolerance activity has not been studied so far. In this study, it is shown that expression of the Osr40c1 gene correlates with the drought tolerance potential of various rice cultivars. Transgenic rice plants overexpressing Osr40c1 were significantly more tolerant to drought stress than the wild-type plants. Furthermore, ectopic expression of the Osr40c1 gene in tobacco yielded a similar result. Interestingly, the protein displayed a nucleo-cytoplasmic localization and was found to interact with a number of drought-responsive proteins such as S-adenosylmethionine synthase 2 (OsSAM2), stress-associated protein 8 (OsSAP8), DNA-binding protein MNB1B (OsMNB1B), and histone 4 (OsH4). Silencing of each of these protein partners led to drought sensitivity in otherwise tolerant Osr40c1-expressing transgenic tobacco lines indicating that these partners were crucial for the Osr40c1-mediated drought tolerance in planta. Moreover, the association of Osr40c1 with these partners occurred specifically under drought stress forming a multi-protein complex. Together, our findings delineate a novel role of Osr40c1 in imparting drought tolerance by regulating OsMNB1B, OsSAM2, and OsH4 proteins, which presumably enables OsSAP8 to induce downstream gene expression.

Heat stress, particularly the stress appears at the time of flowering to grain filling stages causing severe yield loss in wheat. Heat tolerance is complex phenomena that include adjustment in morphological, physiological and biochemical traits of the crop. Present investigation was carried out to understand the effect of terminal heat stress on different traits of wheat. The experiment was conducted in three dates of sowing as timely sown, late sown and very late sown to expose the crop to heat stress at later stages of the crop growth. Significant genetic variations for all the traits evaluated under three conditions indicated the presence of variability for the traits. Trait association analysis revealed that flag leaf chlorophyll content and MSI at seedling stage; MDA at reproductive stage had direct relationship with grain yield. While under very late sown condition MDA and RWC at seedling stages were found to be highly correlated with grain yield. It indicates that MDA, RWC at seedling stage and days to booting, days to milking plays important role in very late sown condition that can be used as selection criteria in breeding programme.

Among the different mechanism of male sterility operated in the Brassica group crop. Cytoplasmic male sterility mechanism is most suitable for hybrid development in cauliflower because here the curd (intermediate stage) is an edible part of the cauliflower. Further, there is no requirement of restorer line in this case as required in other seed crop. For the multiplication and maintenance of the different lines (A line and B line), sib mating and selfing is not always desirable. In fact, in such situation doubled haploid production through microspore culture is a more appropriate mechanism. Apart from this, the undesirable effect of integration of male sterile cytoplasm can be mitigated by adopting the repeated back crossing, through chloroplast substitution or somatic hybridization mechanism.

The present study was undertaken to determine the antimicrobial resistance pattern of Enterobacter species to guide the clinician in selecting the best antimicrobial agent for an individual patient. A total of 50 clinical isolates of Enterobacter species were collected from different clinical specimens at the microbiology laboratory of BSMMU between August, 2018 and September, 2019. The two main species of Enterobacter, E.cloacae and E.aerogenes were identified by biochemical tests. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing was performed by Kirby Bauer disc diffusion method and reported according to CLSI guidelines. Majority (56%) of the isolated Enterobacter were E.cloacae, 40% were E.aerogenes and 4% were other species. The Enterobacter isolates showed relatively high resistance rates to the cephalosporins including cefoxitin (82%), cefixime (62%), ceftazidime (46%) and ceftriaxone (46%). Resistance to the carbapenems and aminoglycosides was relatively low. The high resistance rates of Enterobacter species to multiple antibiotics makes it necessary for antimicrobial susceptibility testing to be conducted prior to antibiotic prescription. Bangladesh J Med Microbiol 2019; 13 (2): 3-6

Wheat blast (WB) caused by Magnaporthe oryzae pathotype Triticum (MoT) is an important fungal disease in tropical and subtropical wheat production regions. The disease was initially identified in Brazil in 1985, and it subsequently spread to some major wheat-producing areas of the country as well as several South American countries such as Bolivia, Paraguay, and Argentina. In recent years, WB has been introduced to Bangladesh and Zambia via international wheat trade, threatening wheat production in South Asia and Southern Africa with the possible further spreading in these two continents. Resistance source is mostly limited to 2NS carriers, which are being eroded by newly emerged MoT isolates, demonstrating an urgent need for identification and utilization of non-2NS resistance sources. Fungicides are also being heavily relied on to manage WB that resulted in increasing fungal resistance, which should be addressed by utilization of new fungicides or rotating different fungicides. Additionally, quarantine measures, cultural practices, non-fungicidal chemical treatment, disease forecasting, biocontrol etc., are also effective components of integrated WB management, which could be used in combination with varietal resistance and fungicides to obtain reasonable management of this disease.

Spot blotch (SB) disease caused by the hemibiotrophic pathogen Bipolaris sorokiniana inflicting major losses to the wheat grown in warm and highly humid areas of the Indian subcontinent, including Bangladesh, necessitates identification of QTLs stably expressing in Indian subcontinent conditions. Thus, two RIL mapping populations, i.e., WC (WUYA × CIANO T79) and KC (KATH × CIANO T79), were phenotyped at Dinajpur, Bangladesh for three consecutive years (2013-2015) and genotyped on a DArTseq genotyping by sequencing (GBS) platform at CIMMYT, Mexico. In both populations, quantitative inheritance along with transgressive segregation for SB resistance was identified. The identified QTLs were mostly minor and were detected on 10 chromosomes, i.e., 1A, 1B, 2A, 2B, 2D, 4B, 4D, 5A, 5D, and 7B. The phenotypic variation explained by the identified QTLs ranged from 2.3–15.0%, whereby QTLs on 4B (13.7%) and 5D (15.0%) were the largest in effect. The identified QTLs upon stacking showed an additive effect in lowering the SB score in both populations. The probable presence of newly identified Sb4 and durable resistance gene Lr46 in the identified QTL regions indicates the importance of these genes in breeding for SB resistance in Bangladesh and the whole of South Asia.

While glutathione (GSH) is known to regulate iron (Fe) deficiency response in plants, its involvement in modulating subcellular Fe homeostasis remained elusive. In this study, we report that the GSH depleted mutants, cad2-1 and pad2-1 displayed increased sensitivity to Fe deficiency with significant down-regulation of the vacuolar Fe exporters, AtNRAMP3 and AtNRAMP4 and the chloroplast Fe importer, AtPIC1. Moreover, the pad2-1 mutant accumulated higher Fe content in vacuoles and lower in chloroplasts compared with Col-0 under Fe limited condition. Exogenous GSH treatment could enhance the chloroplast Fe content in Col-0 plants but failed to do so in the nramp3nramp4 double mutant demonstrating the role of GSH in modulating subcellular Fe homeostasis. Pharmacological experiments, mutant analysis and promoter assay revealed that this regulation involved transcriptional activation of the transporter genes by a GSH-GSNO module. The Fe responsive bHLH transcription factors (TFs), AtbHLH29, AtbHLH38 and AtbHLH101 were identified to interact with the promoters of these genes which were in turn activated via S-nitrosylation. Together, the present study delineates the role of GSH-GSNO module in regulating subcellular Fe homeostasis by transcriptional activation of the Fe transporters AtNRAMP3, AtNRAMP4 and AtPIC1 via S-nitrosylation of the bHLH TFs during Fe deficiency.Summary statementGlutathione regulates subcellular iron homeostasis under iron deficiency via GSNO dependent transcriptional activation of AtNRAMP3, AtNRAMP4 and AtPIC1 genes by S-nitrosylation of the iron responsive bHLH transcription factors, AtbHLH29, AtbHLH38 and AtbHLH101.

Spot blotch (SB) disease causes significant yield loss in wheat production in the warm and humid regions of the eastern Gangetic plains (EGP) of South Asia (SA). Most of the cultivated varieties in the eastern part of SA are affected by SB under favorable climatic conditions. To understand the nature of SB resistance and map the underlying resistant loci effective in SA, two bi-parental mapping populations were evaluated for 3 years, i.e., 2013–2015 for the BARTAI × CIANO T79 population (denoted as BC) and 2014–2016 for the CASCABEL × CIANO T79 population (CC), at Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India. DArTSeq genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS) platform was used for genotyping of the populations. Distribution of disease reaction of genotypes in both populations was continuous, revealing the quantitative nature of resistance. Significant “genotype,” “year,” and “genotype × year” interactions for SB were observed. Linkage map with the genome coverage of 8,598.3 and 9,024.7 cM in the BC and CC population, respectively, was observed. Two quantitative trait loci (QTLs) were detected on chromosomes 1A and 4D in the BC population with an average contribution of 4.01 and 12.23% of the total phenotypic variation (PV), respectively. Seven stable QTLs were detected on chromosomes 1B, 5A, 5B, 6A, 7A, and 7B in the CC population explaining 2.89–10.32% of PV and collectively 39.91% of the total PV. The QTL detected at the distal end of 5A chromosome contributed 10.32% of the total PV. The QTLs on 6A and 7B in CC could be new, and the one on 5B may represent the Sb2 gene. These QTLs could be used in SB resistance cultivar development for SA.

Under changing environmental conditions, salt stress has posed a severe threat to agriculture. Although the R40 family lectins are known to be associated with osmotic stress response, their mechanism of action remains elusive. Among them,Osr40g3displays the highest expression under salt stress. Here, we report that the constitutive overexpression ofOsr40g3imparts salt tolerance but displays pollen sterility and poor seed development in rice. Promoter analysis and gene expression studies revealed that the gene follows a precise tissue-specific expression pattern, which is essential for proper seed development. Overexpressing the gene under the control of its native promoter rescued the pollen-sterile phenotype while significantly improving salt tolerance. Protein-protein interaction studies demonstrated thatOsr40g3 positively regulates an expansin protein,OsEG45, while decreasing the stability of a 14-3-3 protein,OsGF14e. Correspondingly, theOsEG45overexpression andOsGF14esilencing lines display a salt-tolerant phenotype. Again, silencingOsEG45in the background ofOsGF14esilencing lines resulted in a salt-sensitive phenotype, indicating that salt tolerance of theOsGF14esilencing lines isOsEG45-dependent. Notably, theOsGF14egene displays early salt responsiveness, whileOsr40g3andOsEG45display a late response, indicating a spatio-temporal regulation of these genes. Interestingly, constitutive overexpression ofOsr40g3or silencing ofOsGF14eleads to diminished gibberellic acid (GA) accumulation that activates theOsEG45gene. Together, our study demonstrates that during salt stress,Osr40g3, a late salt-responsive gene, confers salt tolerance by negatively regulatingOsGF14e while positively regulatingOsEG45 via a GA-mediated pathway. This mechanistic insight broadens our understanding of lectin-mediated regulation of salt tolerance.

Lectin proteins play an important role in biotic and abiotic stress responses in plants. Although the rice lectin protein,Osr40c1, has been reported to be regulated by drought stress, the mechanism of its drought tolerance activity has not been studied so far. In this study, it has been depicted that expression ofOsr40c1gene correlates with the drought tolerance potential of various rice cultivars. Transgenic rice plants overexpressingOsr40c1were significantly more tolerant to drought stress over the wild-type plants. Furthermore, ectopic expression of theOsr40c1gene in tobacco yielded a similar result. Interestingly, the protein displayed a nucleo-cytoplasmic localization and was found to interact with a number of drought-responsive proteins likeOsSAM2,OsSAP8,OsMNB1B, andOsH4. Fascinatingly, silencing of each of these protein partners led to drought susceptibility in the otherwise tolerantOsr40c1 expressing transgenic tobacco lines indicating that these partners were crucial for theOsr40c1-mediated drought tolerancein planta. Together, the present investigation delineated the novel role ofOsr40c1 protein in imparting drought tolerance by regulating the chromatin proteins,OsMNB1B andOsH4, which presumably enablesOsSAP8 to induce downstream gene expression. In addition, its interaction withOsSAM2 might induce polyamine biosynthesis thus further improving drought tolerance in plants.HighlightsA rice lectin protein,Osr40c1, plays a crucial role in imparting drought stress tolerance in plants by modulatingOsSAM2 as well as the transcriptional regulatorsOsSAP8,OsMNB1B andOsH4.

With the changing climatic conditions, drought has become one of the most threatening abiotic stress factors that adversely affect rice cultivation and productivity. Although the involvement of the jacalin domain-containing protein, OsSalT, has been reported in drought and salinity tolerance, its functional mechanism still remains largely unexplored. In this study, expression of the OsSalT gene was found to be positively correlated with the drought tolerance potential with its higher transcript abundance in the tolerant indica rice cultivar, Vandana and lower abundance in the susceptible cultivar, MTU1010. Moreover, the ectopic expression of OsSalT in tobacco imparted drought stress tolerance in the transgenic lines. The transgenic lines exhibited significantly improved growth and higher osmolyte accumulation over the wild-type (WT) plants together with the induction in the OsSalT expression under drought stress. Fascinatingly, the yeast two-hybrid and bimolecular fluorescence complementation (BiFC) analyses confirmed the interaction of OsSalT protein with two interesting transcription factors (TFs), OsNAC1 and OsDREB2A. In silico analysis further revealed that the OsSalT protein interacted with the regulatory domain of OsDREB2A and the C-terminal domain of OsNAC1 leading to their activation and induction of their downstream drought-responsive genes. Together, this study unravels a novel model for OsSalT-mediated regulation of drought tolerance in plants.

ABSTARCT Yellow vein mosaic is one of the devastating diseases of okra found in Indian subcontinent. Mosaic is caused by mono and bipartite begomoviruses and their satellites. This disease mainly reduces the quality of fruit and is greatly affected in severe case of infection. Management of disease by the application of chemicals is quite difficult and hazardous to the environment. The development of resistant cultivar is only practical approach to control the disease. Several researchers work on genetics of disease resistance and inheritance of resistance to yellow mosaic disease. Different source of resistant in wild species of okra had been identified. For the improvement of cultivated okra species, it is necessary to understand and appreciate the studies related to the virus, transmission of virus, alternative host for virus, and wild relative of okra, cross abilities barrier between the species, favorable conditions for disease development, screening methods, and breeding strategies. Under this chapter, we have tried to incorporate all related aspects that directly or indirectly help in the development of resistant cultivar of okra.

Flowering time and seed size are the important traits for adaptation in chickpea. Early phenology (time of flowering, podding and maturity) enhance chickpea adaptation to short season environments. Along with a trait of consumer preference, seed size has also been considered as an important factor for subsequent plant growth parameters including germination, seedling vigour and seedling mass. Small seeded kabuli genotype ICC 16644 was crossed with four genotypes (JGK 2, KAK 2, KRIPA and ICC 17109) to study inheritance of flowering time and seed size. The relationships of phenology with seed size, grain yield and its component traits were studied. The study included parents, F1, F2 and F3 of four crosses. The segregation data of F2 indicated flowering time in chickpea was governed by two genes with duplicate recessive epistasis and lateness was dominant to earliness. Two genes were controlling 100-seed weight where small seed size was dominant over large seed size. Early phenology had significant negative or no association (ICC 16644 × ICC 17109) with 100-seed weight. Yield per plant had significant positive association with number of seeds per plant, number of pods per plant, biological yield per plant, 100-seed weight, harvest index and plant height and hence could be considered as factors for seed yield improvement. Phenology had no correlation with yield per se (seed yield per plant) in any of the crosses studied. Thus, present study shows that in certain genetic background it might be possible to breed early flowering genotypes with large seed size in chickpea and selection of early flowering genotypes may not essentially have a yield penalty.

With the changing climatic conditions, drought has become one of the most threatening abiotic stress factors that adversely affect rice cultivation and productivity. Although the involvement of the jacalin domain-containing protein, OsSalT, has been reported in drought and salinity tolerance, its functional mechanism still remains largely unexplored. In this study, expression of the OsSalT gene was found to be positively correlated with the drought tolerance potential with its higher transcript abundance in the tolerant indica rice cultivar, Vandana, and lower abundance in the susceptible cultivar, MTU1010. Moreover, the overexpression of OsSalT gene in rice and its ectopic expression in tobacco significantly improved drought stress tolerance in the transgenic lines. The transgenic lines exhibited significantly improved growth and higher osmolyte accumulation over the wild-type (WT) plants under drought stress. Fascinatingly, the yeast two-hybrid and bimolecular fluorescence complementation (BiFC) analyses confirmed the interaction of OsSalT protein with two interesting transcription factors (TFs), OsNAC1 and OsDREB2A. In silico analysis followed by yeast two-hybrid assay further revealed that the OsSalT protein interacted with the C-terminal domains of both OsDREB2A and OsNAC1 leading to their activation. This triggered the induction of their downstream drought-responsive genes. Together, this study unravelled a novel model for OsSalT-mediated regulation of drought tolerance in plants.

Pityriasis versicolor is a chronic, superficial fungal infection affecting the superficial layer of a stratum corneum. Malassezia furfur is the major species involved in pityriasis versicolor. Currently many researchers reported increase in the incidence of other species as a causative agent of pityriasis versicolor. Isolation and identification of Malassezia species from suspected Pityriasis versicolor patients was conducted in the Department of Microbiology and immunology Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) from September 2013 to August 2014. Ninety two clinically diagnosed patients of Pityriasis versicolor were studied and samples from skin lesion were processed for direct microscopy and culture. Species of Malassezia were identified by cultural characteristics in Dixon's agar media by macro and microscopic observation of the colonies and by catalase test, urease test, esculin test and tween assimilation test. A totalof 92 cases 70(70.08%) were positive by direct microscopy and 50(54.34%) were positive by culture. Malassezia globosa was found in 38(76%) cases as the commonest etiological agent and Malassezia furfur was found in 10(20%) cases and Malassezia obtusa in 2 (4%) cases respectively.Bangladesh J Med Microbiol 2015; 9 (2): 17-19

Bridges reported one of the earliest observations of gene duplication from the doubling of a chromosomal band in a mutant of the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, which exhibited extreme reduction in eye size. Based on whole-genome analysis of Arabidopsis thaliana, there is compelling evidence that angiosperms underwent two whole-genome duplication events early during their evolutionary history. Recent studies have shown that these events were crucial for the creation of many important developmental and regulatory genes found in extant angiosperm genomes. Recent studies provide strong indications that even yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae), with its compact genome, is in fact an ancient tetraploid. Gene duplication is providing new genetic material for mutation, drift and selection to act upon, the result of which is specialized or new gene functions. Without gene duplication, the plasticity of a genome or species in adapting to changing environments would be severely limited. The era of whole genome sequencing of model organisms suggests a number of duplication events take place while evolving modern species. Key words: Evolution, genome duplication, diversity.

There is a great need to determine the susceptibility of individual Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains as rapidly as possible because emergence of multidrug-resistant and extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis in developing countries. The study was conducted to evaluate the thin layer agar (TLA) media for rapid detection of resistance of M.tuberculosis to rifampicin (RMP) and isoniazid (INH) in clinical isolates and to determine the sensitivity and time to positivity compared to the proportion method. One hundred clinical isolates of M.tuberculosis were studied. For the TLA method, three compartment Petri plate containing 7H11 agar and 7H11 agar with RMP and INH. Results were compared to the proportion method for RMP and INH. The sensitivity for INH and RMP+INH was 85.7 % and 100%. The use of a TLA plate enables the rapid detection of resistance to the two prime anti-tuberculosis drugs RMP and INH in a median time of 9.60 days. TLA was a rapid method for the detection of resistance of M.tuberculosis in the two drugs studied. This faster method is simple to perform, providing an alternative method when more sophisticated techniques are not available in low-resource settings.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bjmm.v7i1.19313 Bangladesh J Med Microbiol 2013; 07(01): 2-6

The Sundarbans mangrove forest is an important resource for the people of the Ganges Delta. It plays an important role in the local as well as global ecosystem by absorbing carbon dioxide and other pollutants from air and water, offering protection to millions of people in the Ganges Delta against cyclone and water surges, stabilizing the shore line, trapping sediment and nutrients, purifying water, and providing services for human beings, such as fuel wood, medicine, food, and construction materials. However, this mangrove ecosystem is under threat, mainly due to climate change and anthropogenic factors. Anthropogenic and climate change-induced degradation, such as over-exploitation of timber and pollution, sea level rise, coastal erosion, increasing salinity, effects of increasing number of cyclones and higher levels of storm surges function as recurrent threats to mangroves in the Sundarbans. In this situation, regular and detailed information on mangrove species composition, their spatial distribution and the changes taking place over time is very important for a thorough understanding of mangrove biodiversity, and this information can also lead to the adoption of management practices designed for the maximum sustainable yield of the Sundarbans forest resources. We employed a maximum likelihood classifier technique to classify images recorded by the Landsat satellite series and used post classification comparison techniques to detect changes at the species level. The image classification resulted in overall accuracies of 72%, 83%, 79% and 89% for the images of 1977, 1989, 2000 and 2015, respectively. We identified five major mangrove species and detected changes over the 38-year (1977–2015) study period. During this period, both Heritiera fomes and Excoecaria agallocha decreased by 9.9%, while Ceriops decandra, Sonneratia apelatala, and Xylocarpus mekongensis increased by 12.9%, 380.4% and 57.3%, respectively.

Occurrence of sheath blight disease (Rhizoctonia solani Kuhn) in rice (Oryza sativa L.) is a regular feature in tropical South Asia and causes huge economic losses. Till now, no resistant cultivar has been developed against the pathogen and gene(s) conferring complete resistance for the disease are not reported in the available rice germplasm. This necessitates the screening of new rice germplasm against the pathogen to identify the resistance source. Ten newly developed Wild Abortive (WA) cytoplasmic male-sterile (CMS) lines, along with a susceptible cultivar (cv. Pant Dhan-4) were evaluated under green-house conditions in a randomized complete block design, with three replications. Screening was done using fungal mycelia disc (15 mm size diameter) and sclerotia (0.2 mg) to determine the potentiality of inoculum. Genotypes were assessed for total lesion length (cm) at 3, 6, 9 and 12 days after inoculation. The response in relative lesion length varied significantly depending upon sclerotia or mycelium discs used and genetic background. During initial period of disease development, non-significant variation was observed but later on the response of genotypes was clearly distinguishable when lesion size gradually increased. Disease severity index was comparatively higher for sclerotial inoculation than mycelial inoculation indicating sclerotia are more effective. The genotype UPRM 271-8-5EUI-3-2A showed the lowest severity in both the methods of inoculation. The highest severity was recorded for UPRM 78-4-1A (mycelial inoculation) and UPRM 271-8-5EUI-6-4A (sclerotial inoculation). Disease appearance was more uniform and higher in sclerotial inoculation when compared with mycelial inoculation. Screening of rice germplasm using uniform sized sclerotia and disease assessment at one week after inoculation were found to be the most effective for screening of rice cultivars.

Mangrove ecosystems are complex in nature. For monitoring the impact of climate variability in this ecosystem, a multidisciplinary approach is a prerequisite. Changes in temperature and rainfall pattern have been suggested as an influential factor responsible for the change in mangrove species composition and spatial distribution. The main aim of this study was to assess the relationship between temperature, rainfall pattern and dynamics of mangrove species in the Sundarbans, Bangladesh, over a 38 year time period from 1977 to 2015. To assess the relationship, a three stage analytical process was employed. Primarily, the trend of temperature and rainfall over the study period were identified using a linear trend model; then, the supervised maximum likelihood classifier technique was employed to classify images recorded by Landsat series and post-classification comparison techniques were used to detect changes at species level. The rate of change of different mangrove species was also estimated in the second stage. Finally, the relationship between temperature, rainfall and the dynamics of mangroves at species level was determined using a simple linear regression model. The results show a significant statistical relationship between temperature, rainfall and the dynamics of mangrove species. The trends of change for Heritiera fomes and Sonneratia apelatala show a strong relationship with temperature and rainfall, while Ceriops decandra shows a weak relationship. In contrast, Excoecaria agallocha and Xylocarpus mekongensis do not show any significant relationship with temperature and rainfall. On the basis of our results, it can be concluded that temperature and rainfall are important climatic factors influencing the dynamics of three major mangrove species viz. H. fomes, S. apelatala and C. decandra in the Sundarbans.

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) remains one of the major causes of death from a single infectious agent worldwide. The early detection of new cases of pulmonary tuberculosis is an important goal in tuberculosis control program.Objective: 1n this study, thin layer agar (TLA) culture was compared with Lowenstein-Jensen (LJ) culture for rapid detection of pulmonary tuberculosis. Methods: It was a cross sectional study conducted in National Tuberculosis Reference Labora­tory (NTRL) of National Institute of Disease of Chest and Hospital (NIDCH), Dhaka, from July 2010 to June 2011. A total of 100 sputum smear positive for acid fast bacilli (AFB) by Z-N staining, pulmonary tuberculosis patients were included in this study. Samples were processed by modified Petroff method and then cultured on thin layer 7H11(TL7H11) plates and L-J tubes. TL7H11 plates were observed microscopically for rnicrocolony growth once a week for 6 weeks, and L-J tubes were observed once a week for 8 weeks. Results: The recovery rates of mycobacteria on only TLA, only LJ and on both media were 90%, 97% and 88% respectively. Overall positivity was 99% in both L-J and TLA media. Mean time for detection of mycobacteria on TLA was 9.04±1.66 days compared to 21.78±6.19 days on L-J media. The rate of contamination was higher (6%) in L-J media than in TLA media (4%). Conclusion: The TL7H11 media can be used as an alternative to the Lowenstein-Jensen medium for early isolation of mycobacteria in resource constrained settings.

Background/Aim: Gastro duodenal ulcer is a common disorder of the gastrointestinal tract. Several Indian medicinal plants have been traditionally and extensively used to prevent different diseases. In the present research studies, Bael fruit ( Aegle marmelos (AM), family: Rutaceae ) which are also called as Bilva in ancient Sanskrit was used as a herbal drug and its antioxidative role in aspirin- induced gastroduodenal ulceration in albino rat was evaluated using essential biochemical parameters. Patients and Methods: Mucosal thickness (MT), ulcer index (UI), different biochemical parameters, such as aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), catalase (CAT), superoxide dismutase (SOD), reduced glutathione (GSH), and lipid peroxidation (LPO) were measured in all the groups, to study the possible involvement of antioxidants with gastroduodenal protection. Results: A significant decrease in MT, SOD and CAT activities and GSH level and a significant increase in UI, AST, ALT, and ALP activities and LPO level were observed in aspirin treated stomach and duodenum of albino rats. Conclusions: Pretreatment with AM fruit pulp extract for 14 consecutive days showed the reverse effects of aspirin suggesting gastro-duodenal protective and anti- ulcerogenic properties of AM through its antioxidant mechanism.

No AbstractDOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bjmm.v6i1.19350 Bangladesh J Med Microbiol 2012; 06(01): 1-2

Background: Tuberculosis remains world's leading cause of death from a single infectious agent. Fluorescence microscopy offers well-described benefits, comparing with brightfield microscopy, for the evaluation sputum smear samples for tuberculosis. We evaluated the diagnostic performance of fluorescence microscopy, using novel Light Emitting Diode (LED) technology as an alternative to the conventional fluorescence microscopy by Auramine stain as well as brightfield microscopy by Ziehl- Neelsen (ZN) stain. Objectives: The objective of the study was to see the usefulness of LED fluorescent microscopy in the diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis. Methods: This is a prospective study consisted of 150 sputum samples from the patients of NIDCH, Mohakhali. All samples were stained by auramine and ZN stain at BSMMU and culture was done in Lowenstein-Jensen (L-J) media as gold standard at NTRL, Mohakhali. Results: In this study total 66(44%) out of 150 sputum specimens were positive for Mycobacterium Tuberculosis by culture. Sensitivity and specificity documented for the different modalities were 95.38% and 94.11%, respectively, for the LED assessment; 68.18% and 90.47%, respectively, for the CFM assessment; and 56.06% and 97.61%, respectively, for brightfield microscopy by ZN stain. The difference in their case detection rate was statistically significant (χ2=119.38, p

In Bangladesh with a large number of pulmonary tuberculosis cases and financial constraints with high HIV risk, evaluation of scanty i.e paucibacillary cases has great importance. To study the efficacy of Light Emitting Diode fluorescent microscopy in the diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis specially paucibacillary cases in comparison to conventional fluorescent microscopy, Ziehl-Neelsen staining and culture of sputum samples from patients suspected of pulmonary tuberculosis. 150 sputum samples collected from the patients suspected of pulmonary tuberculosis were processed by the Petroff's method, and subjected to Ziehl-Neelsen staining (ZN), which were examined by both LED and conventional fluorescent microscope (CFM) and culture on Lowenstein- Jensen media (gold standard) for detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. In this study, out of 150 patients 14.67%, 8.67%, 4% cases were detected as paucibacillary (Scanty) cases by LED, CFM, ZN respectively. LED fluorescent microscopy is more effective in the detection of paucibacillary cases of pulmonary tuberculosis than other methods of microscopic examination. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bmj.v40i1.9958 BMJ 2011; 40(1): 22-26